airborne amphibian

[nycflasher]

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - An airline passenger was given a nasty fright when a frog with a taste for adventure stowed away in her in-flight salad, New Zealand authorities said on Tuesday.

The passenger discovered the airborne amphibian perched on a slice of cucumber while on a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Wellington in February....


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[waltky]

Climate change bad fer bullfrogs, good fer octopuses...

‘Unabated’ Amphibian Decline Found to Have Myriad Causes
May 23, 2016 - Researchers say there is not one 'smoking gun' to explain why amphibians have been disappearing from their habitats

Amphibians continue their “unabated” decline, but researchers have yet to find a “smoking gun” as to why, creating a slippery problem for conservationists. Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey say that without a clear reason for the decline, coming up with solutions to reverse it will remain elusive. “Implementing conservation plans at a local level will be key in stopping amphibian population losses, since global efforts to reduce or lessen threats have been elusive,” said Evan Grant, a USGS research wildlife biologist who led the study. “This research changes the way we need to think about amphibian conservation by showing that local action needs to be part of the global response to amphibian declines, despite remaining questions in what is causing local extinctions.”

Amphibians like this American Bullfrog have been on a decline since the 1960s.​

Researchers did find some causes, but they differ according to region. For example, “human influence” such as pollution from cities and runoff from agricultural activities were listed as reasons east of the Mississippi River, while in the Upper Midwest and New England, the decline seems tied to disease, particularly a type of fungus.East of the Colorado River, pesticides were listed as a cause, while climate change appears to be hurting amphibians across the Southern U.S. and the West Coast. Amphibians in the U.S. have been in decline since the 1960s, according to the USGS, even in areas where they are protected, such as national parks. Researchers, using data collected in some locations since 1993, have found that amphibians have been declining in the U.S. at an average rate of 3.8 percent a year.

Declines in some regions were more sharp, opening the possibility that amphibians could completely disappear in certain areas within 20 years. "Losing 3 or 4 percent of amphibian populations might not sound like a big deal, but small losses year in and year out quickly lead to dramatic and consequential declines,” said USGS ecologist Michael Adams, a study coauthor and the lead for the USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative, a group that monitors amphibian populations. While the study doesn't offer easy answers for how to stem the decline of amphibians, narrowing down the causes by region could be the first step in sparking local action to save the creatures.

‘Unabated’ Amphibian Decline Found to Have Myriad Causes

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The Calamari Are Coming!
May 23, 2016 - Scientists say cephalopods like this Giant Australian Cuttlefish are thriving as the oceans

Fish populations all over the world are challenged but cephalopods, those canny invertebrates that include squid, nautilus, octopus and cuttlefish, are proving as adaptable as they are smart. A recent report from the United Nations estimated that over 70 percent of the worlds fish stocks are in their words either fully exploited meaning there is no room to expand the number we catch, or over-exploited, meaning we are overfishing and depleting the fish stocks. Scientists at the University of Adelaide in Australia, however, have discovered that over the past 60 years, cephalopod numbers have risen across the entire expanse of our water systems.

Unpredictable news

That may be good news for those of you who really like calamari but is an unpredictable bit of news for the health of the world's oceans. Zoe Doubleday is a research Fellow in the Environment Institute and School of Biological Sciences and the author of a new report appearing in Monday's Cell Press journal Current Biology. She told VOA that cephalopods are unique in that they are both "voracious and adaptable predators," and "an important source of food for many marine species ((e.g. marine mammals, fish, seabirds)), and support many important commercial and subsistence fisheries around the world." The discovery came, ironically when the team set out to study information that suggested the giant Australian cuttlefish was disappearing. Surprisingly," she says, "analyses revealed that cephalopods, as a whole, are in fact increasing; and since this study, cuttlefish numbers from this iconic population near Whyalla are luckily bouncing back."

Double threat

Doubleday says being good eaters and being good food means it is important to conduct more research because these creatures have such a broad impact in the world's oceans. "... increases in cephalopod abundance" Doubleday told VOA "have implications for both the marine food web and us." She also said they are important food sources for predatory fish, sharks and even seabirds and that means more food for them.

Giant Australian cuttlefish (Sepia apama), Spencer Gulf, South Australia.​

They are also predators, however, and more of them means they may put more pressure on ocean species that are already having trouble adapting to climate change, or are being overfished. "We're currently investigating what may be causing them to proliferate - global warming and overfishing of fish species are two theories," said Doubleday. "It is a difficult, but important question to answer, as it may tell us an even bigger story about how human activities are changing the ocean."

The Calamari Are Coming!